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London Climate Change March Draws Tens of Thousands

Thousands of people marched through central London over the weekend, encircling the Houses of Parliament near the River Thames and calling for a deal on climate change at the Copenhagen conference.

The Metropolitan Police in London said that about 20,000 people had joined the Stop Climate Chaos march on Saturday. Organizers, which included groups like Oxfam, Greenpeace, Friends of the Earth and W.W.F., estimated the turnout to have been about 40,000.

Photo

Protesters demonstrated in support of action on climate change in London on Saturday.Credit
Leon Neal/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

“We wanted to make a positive statement,” said Pip Cartwright, a retired teacher from Witney, in southern England. “It’s for the future. It’s not my generation that’s going to have the problem to solve.”

“The U.K. government must fight for a comprehensive, fair and binding deal at Copenhagen — that is our demand today, and we expect it to be fulfilled,” Barbara Stocking, chief executive of Oxfam in Britain, said in a statement.

“They must return home with a strong, effective climate deal both for our own sakes in the U.K. and for the millions of poor people already suffering from the effects of climate change around the world,” Ms. Stocking added.

Separately, thousands of people participated in climate marches in Glasgow, Belfast, Brussels, Paris and Dublin.